psocoptera

Last Night at the Telegraph Club

2026-02-13T03:40:01Z

Last Night at the Telegraph Club, Malinda Lo, 2021 YA historical. This one's been on my list since 2021 and I'm not sure what made me decide that now was the time. (Looking for some f/f to balance my m/m media consumption watching the gay hockey show, maybe.) Really well done - you can see why the cover is covered in awards - but also kind of wild to read at this moment in history when our fascist government is so desperate to take us back to this time of police raids on gay bars, criminalization of cross-dressing, and taking people's papers and threatening them with denaturalization and deportation. But I guess it's hopeful to think that Lily and Kath of the book are going to make it to Pride parades in their 30s and the 2004 San Francisco marriage licenses in their 60s, and maybe it won't even take us quite so long to work our way back this time. Anyways, Lo does an amazing job bringing a time and place to life, so much great detail here, highly recommended.

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Starstrike

2026-01-13T01:03:12Z

Starstrike, Yoon Ha Lee, 2025 ya sf, second in a trilogy that started with Moonstorm. I liked Moonstorm a lot but unfortunately this one didn't work for me. Interesting things are still going on but the writing felt scattered and muddled and I rarely had any sense of anticipation or direction. I may still check out the eventual third book - I would still like to see how things turn out for the characters, and it seems quite possible that Lee will re-find his groove or the structure of the third book will flow better or whatever the problem was - but as of this one I can't really recommend the series. :(

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The Nefarious Nights of Willowweep Manor

2025-09-28T21:38:30Z

The Nefarious Nights of Willowweep Manor, Shaenon K. Garrity and Christopher Baldwin, 2025 YA SFF graphic novel. Sequel to The Dire Days of Willowweep Manor, and despite opening with a charming little recap, I think you will want to have read that one to appreciate this one. If you have read that one you know it was delightful and this one is as well - fun new characters and an expansion of the premise, some excellently silly moments, Baldwin's adorable art, great stuff.

Spoilers: ( Read more... )

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Among Ghosts

2025-08-29T04:51:37Z

Among Ghosts, Rachel Hartman, 2025 YA fantasy (or possibly middle-grade? really heavy/graphically violent middle-grade??). Set in Goredd some years/decades/(centuries??) prior to Amy or Seraphina/Tess, but was written to stand alone and imo would read just fine if you've never read any of her other work. There is a *lot* going on here in terms of plot elements/characters/things needing resolution but I felt like it all fit together and hung together. More emotionally resonant for me than the second Tess book. Some really heavy/bleak events and backstory but I thought Hartman handled it well (matter-of-factly without downplaying); she also did a really nice job with the lighter and happier stuff. A sequence involving a bird was just gorgeous (as well as doing a neat job of letting her fill in some of the stuff happening outside the protagonist's POV). I do recommend this but I wouldn't give it to a younger reader without getting a rundown on some of the content, which I suppose I will put behind this cut.

( Read more... )

Second cut for more specific spoilers ( Read more... )

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The Maid and the Crocodile

2025-06-06T18:43:07Z

The Maid and the Crocodile, Jordan Ifueko, 2024 YA. I liked this a lot. Charming characters, enjoyable voice, some great moments, the exact right amount of story for the space. I couldn't remember much about Raybearer except that I had really liked it (this is in the same world) but Ifueko did a good job of filling in who the overlapping characters were and anything else you needed to know. ( Read more... ) I still have three more Lodestar nominees to read but this is definitely a strong contender.

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science fiction double feature

2025-04-13T03:24:32Z

Moonstorm, Yoon Ha Lee, 2024 YA novel, the first of a planned trilogy. This was great - teen mecha pilots, divided loyalties, an interesting setting and worldbuilding where gravity is sort of a collective faith, and a rivalry that seems like it might be possibly heading for an f/f romance. On both the Norton and Lodestar ballots but recommended even if you're not reading for those.

The Transitive Properties of Cheese, Ann LeBlanc, 2024 novella. Transgender transhuman hijinks. A must-read if you like Greg Egan, or maybe Snow Crash, or just want to read about the pros and cons of repeatedly forking your personality. The end felt a little muddled but overall it was great - LeBlanc is both having fun with the possibilities of early-adopter uploading, and exploring them seriously. I'm sorry I read it too late to nominate it but at least I can recommend it here.

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The Girl from the Sea

2025-04-06T01:19:54Z

The Girl from the Sea, Molly Knox Ostertag, 2021 YA graphic novel. Selkie story, not for losers. (Sorry.) Cute and sweet story about a closeted high school girl having a summer romance, coming out to her family and friends, and finding solutions other than eco-terrorism to a local ecological problem, what's not to like.

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Young Hag and the Witches' Quest

2025-03-22T02:03:28Z

Young Hag and the Witches' Quest, Isabel Greenberg, 2024 YA graphic fantasy, or possibly I mean middlegrade. Arthurian, but mostly centered on an original character and taking place after Arthur's death, with flashbacks being told as stories within the story that mostly focus on the female characters. I enjoy seeing people find new directions to take the Matter of Britain and I thought this was a good one. Also it was funny and made me laugh out loud a couple of times, and Greenberg has a really interesting art style, kind of intentionally childlike and sometimes scribbly, but really expressive. (And nice use of a limited color palate, and some neat scenery stuff with standing stones and a river, and a cute and funny baby.) I had Hugo-nominated this on the chance that I would end up wanting to have done that, and, yay, I did, good call past me.

Also I ended up reading this book partly on Hoopla and partly on paper (with reading glasses! they work!) which meant I could do a direct comparison of which felt like a smoother/easier reading experience. Digital comics interfaces have come a long way - Hoopla will show you the page, then each panel so you can read it, then the page again, and only got confused about panel order on a couple of two-page spreads - but I tried timing myself reading 20 pages each way and it was still faster for me to read on paper. (With reading glasses, because the lettering here is small.) It's useful to know that the Hoopla interface is a workable way for me to read comics, though!

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The Deep Dark

2025-03-13T17:21:03Z

The Deep Dark, Molly Knox Ostertag, 2024 YA graphic novel. I was hooked on this as soon as I picked it up and ended up reading it in one sitting once I got my hands on a library copy. A reunion with a childhood friend and a supernatural secret and a nicely-realized near Joshua Tree setting and a sweet F/F romance. I really enjoyed Ostertag's art - mostly black and white with some excellent use of spot color, switching to full color for flashbacks and similar purposes. One particular sequence was just - wow. The pacing and plot were all very well done too; Ostertag did some neat stuff to help us track the passage of time (ranging from setting the story around the winter holidays to showing time and day stamps on cellphones) and wove the various plot threads together in a really satisfying way. I'm definitely adding this to my Hugo Graphic ballot!

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Sheine Lende

2025-03-13T03:15:34Z

Sheine Lende, Darcie Little Badger, 2024 YA novel prequel to Elatsoe. I ended up liking this a lot, although after a strong beginning I thought the middle got a little slow and muddled. But the last act was strong and I have ended up adding it to my Lodestar nominations.

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The Sapling Cage

2025-02-17T02:16:14Z

The Sapling Cage, Margaret Killjoy, 2024 novel. Fantasy, apparently first of a trilogy but I thought it stood alone very nicely. 16-year-old trans girl takes her friend's place as an apprentice witch so that she can live as a girl and become a witch. Not particularly being marketed as YA afaik but it totally deals with coming-of-age themes and I might nominate it for the Lodestar, although nobody else on the spreadsheet has (but nor does it appear on the novels tab so maybe it's just obscure or unpopular?). I really liked it; I like Killjoy's writing (she's apparently kickstartering the next one of those Lamb Will Slaughter The Lion novellas soon) and I thought the fantasy world had some nice touches. Also the cover is great.

Killjoy thanked Tamora Pierce in her acknowledgments and I was struck by (spoilers) ( Read more... )

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The Darkness Outside Us

2024-07-31T00:28:32Z

The Darkness Outside Us, Eliot Schrefer, 2021 YA novel. A friend whose tastes sometimes overlap with mine loved this, but I really did not, alas. Authors are free to write whatever they want, but if a book is going to press my "it couldn't possibly work that way" or "why would anyone ever make that plan" buttons constantly, that better pay off somehow in some kind of moment or insight that justifies all the nonsense.

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Lodestar progress

2024-05-08T01:32:11Z

Liberty's Daughter, Naomi Kritzer, 2023 YA (at least somewhat a pasteup of some earlier stories in F&SF, I think). 16yo on a libertarian seastead solves a series of mysteries. I enjoyed this, although I don't think it's as strong as the Catnet books. A fine thing to hope teens reading Moon is a Harsh Mistress or L. Neil Smith's Pallas might also read, what life might be like in an isolated and resource-limited libertopia for the less lucky.

Unraveller, Frances Hardinge, 2022 YA (2023 in the US, I think, thus the Lodestar qualification). A fantasy world where hate can lead to fairy-tale type transformative curses. I was pretty into this, and then kind of hit a wall somewhere around the two-thirds mark. Did eventually finish and I liked it, just, some kind of a momentum hiccup there. Some interesting, weighty stuff about trauma and fear and recidivism and decarceration, although Hardinge's ultimate conclusions on these topics fell a little flat for me. (I think she came across as a True Believer in Therapy in a way I'm really not, personally, although I realize cultural orthodoxy is on the therapy side here so it will probably work fine for most people. The book, not therapy, although I also recognize that therapy does seem to really work for some people.)

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To Shape A Dragon's Breath

2024-03-21T16:56:15Z

To Shape A Dragon's Breath, Moniquill Blackgoose, 2023 YA novel. Why didn't anybody tell me this was a chemistry fantasy?? If I had read it in time to Hugo-nominate it, I absolutely would have; luckily it seems to have gotten some buzz and made the Norton ballot, so I think there's a good chance we'll see it on the Lodestar. An extremely enjoyable book, which I would like to recommend to people who like school stories, locals who will enjoy the local alternate-history setting (the protag is more or less a Wampanoag from ~Nantucket, attending school somewhere south of the greater ~Boston area, and there's a bit where I think she goes out to ~Waltham), fans of Tamora Pierce (there is a lot of tonal/thematic similarity to the Alanna and Kel books here, and it would not shock me to learn Blackgoose was a Kel/Lalasa shipper), fans of Pern, fans of "Uncleftish Beholding".

Behind the cut I am going to talk more about some of Blackgoose's choices around tone, handling of racism and colonialism, and chemistry worldbuilding. I don't think any of this is massively spoilery for big plot points, but it's probably more detail than you want if you like to read things cold, ymmv. ( Read more... )

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Fence: Disarmed

2023-07-27T15:58:03Z

Fence: Disarmed, Sarah Rees Brennan, another tie-in novel for the Fence comic series. I think I've fallen a bit behind on the comics - there's a volume 5 I haven't read (and then a volume 6 coming out in Jan 2024) - but I didn't feel like I was particularly missing anything. I thought this was fun - I liked it more than the previous one, maybe because I was now more used to SRB's writing of them, or maybe because it was a better plot concept, or maybe because everyone has been allowed to grow up a little bit. Some good moments for everybody but most especially Seiji and Nicholas, <3.

(Note: this is not a comic, but I'm tagging for comics to make it easier to find again.)

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Some Desperate Glory

2023-06-19T21:21:08Z

Some Desperate Glory, Emily Tesh, 2023 novel. Child soldier comes of age, questions what she's been taught. I really liked this - without getting spoilery, I thought it was very nicely constructed, good pacing, satisfying story. It's very closely in dialogue with Ender's Game (okay, maybe not so much a "dialogue" as "grabbing it by the lapels and shouting in its face") and maybe also a certain debate in Marvel fandom circa 2019, and, uh, videogames in general?

Spoilers ( Read more... )

It's marketed as adult but I wonder whether anyone might nominate it for the Lodestar - it's very much a coming-of-age book and I thought felt plausibly borderline in that "older YA - new adult" kind of way. I've kind of lost track of whether the current opinion is that certain kinds of content disqualify something for YA - like, there's a lot of stuff happening here with bodily autonomy and sexual autonomy, but if Chaos Walking counts as YA, this probably could too?

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Across a Field of Starlight

2023-02-03T04:01:54Z

Across a Field of Starlight, Blue Delliquanti, 2022 graphic novel. I started reading this back in the fall, and I got about halfway and it wasn't quite clicking for me somehow, and so I let myself get distracted by other things. And then I picked it up today and read it cover to cover and I loved it. I'm not sure what made the difference - just mood, or being able to focus better by being somewhat limited in options at present (our covid isolation situation is complicated and also I am the kind of sick where I have to pace myself really carefully in terms of housework). But, anyways, I'm glad I came back to it!

Delliquanti has described this book as a teen from a Star Wars society becoming pen pals with a teen from a Star Trek society - it's about cultural worldviews, and cultures coming into conflict, and also the more personal ways that you can know someone for a long time and still not get important things about their cultural context. It's about means and ends and the possibility of self-actualization in a society that guarantees basic needs and also the scariness of that as a sudden possibility. It's really beautifully drawn - Delliquanti's colors and backgrounds and character designs are all terrific - and it's queer in a sort of "obviously the future is hella queer" way while also making that important to certain character arcs and relationships. It's a neat story, we get to see interesting multi-dimensional conflicts while keeping a very personal focus, and there was a page that made me cry. I would love to see this sneak onto the Hugo ballot... the "On a Sunbeam/Mooncakes/Lore Olympus slot", you might call it?

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The Golden Enclaves

2022-10-22T03:52:41Z

The Golden Enclaves, Naomi Novik, 2022 novel. Conclusion of the Scholomance trilogy (part one, part two). Everything behind a cut. ( Read more... )

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The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea

2022-05-27T03:08:16Z

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea, Axie Oh. I put this on my to-read list because the summary reminded me of Sarah Rees Brennan's story Queen of Atlantis; in fact it felt like more of a cross between Spirited Away and, hm, I dunno, what's a YA with a lot of ~destiny~ in it. Anyways, it was okay, some nice imagery, but the throughline was kind of muddled. Lovely cover.

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In the Serpent's Wake

2022-05-14T03:04:11Z

In the Serpent's Wake, Rachel Hartman, sequel to Tess of the Road. Everything else behind a cut. ( Read more... )

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Iron Widow

2022-04-18T05:23:10Z

Iron Widow, Xiran Jay Zhao. I had strongly mixed feelings about this book, and rather than try to decide which of them are spoilery I'm going to park the whole thing under a cut. I will say that I think you might like it if you really liked The Hunger Games. ( Read more... )

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Victories Greater Than Death

2022-03-19T03:13:10Z

Victories Greater Than Death, Charlie Jane Anders. An interesting project - writing a non-imperialist/colonialist space opera (or maybe I mean an anti-imperialist/colonialist space opera) that still hits a lot of the standard space opera beats. Can we imagine a non-hierarchical Starfleet. What if the Progenitors were giant bigots. Can our plucky teen cast of exceptional teens save the day and also sort out their love lives. Book one of a trilogy, and very much felt like the first season of a sci-fi teen drama. I enjoyed it overall - there were definitely parts where I was like "oh, this is fun!" and also some parts where I was like "hm, this is clearly supposed to be fun, but am I actually having the fun". But also a genuinely creepy murder superpower for the antagonist, and I liked the climax, and would recommend it on the whole. It's on the Nebula ballot this year and I would not be at all surprised to see it on the Hugo ballot too.

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A Snake Falls To Earth

2022-01-16T17:20:39Z

A Snake Falls To Earth, Darcie Little Badger, 2021. I was excited to read this after Elatsoe (which I wrote about here), but I wasn't so into it. The pacing is weirdly... flat? or episodic? or something? I would not be surprised to learn that Little Badger developed it from a series of bedtime stories she had been telling her younger cousin, or maybe a series of bedtime stories someone older had been telling *her*, or something. Which, I don't mean to say is a bad thing! That sounds really sweet! "Tell me another story about Oli," sure! The characters were neat, and if sometimes what they were doing next seemed a little random, some of it was also neat, so, hey. And if some of it was kind of underdescribed, like jumping away from something big about to happen, or having just happened, then maybe that fits in well with the bedtime-stories theory, where the listener is supposed to fill in those parts with their own imagination. If I mostly did not, I suppose that's on me. :/

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Aristotle and Dante Dive Into the Waters of the World

2021-12-15T23:41:45Z

Aristotle and Dante Dive Into the Waters of the World, Benjamin Alire Sáenz. Behind cut for major spoilers. ( Read more... )

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Redemptor

2021-10-21T19:55:53Z

Redemptor, Jordan Ifueko. Sequel/conclusion to Raybearer (which I wrote about here). I liked this less well than Raybearer - some awkward/slow pacing around the beginning and middle - but I did like it. Some good stuff about guilt vs conviction, and some neat scenes; I felt like a bunch of stuff at the end kind of came out of nowhere, but was *cool*, so, hey, why not. People who dislike a certain YA fantasy trope will continue to dislike it here, but overall I continue to recommend these as high-quality YA fantasy.

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